1-627-912 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), US president, 1860. The 16th president of the United States of America, Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) joined the Republican party in 1858 and was elected president two years later. His implacable opposition to slavery led to the secession of the southern states and the outbreak of the American Civil War. In 1863, he proclaimed the emancipation of all slaves in the southern Confederate states and later that year restated his anti-slavery views in the Gettysburg Address. Lincoln was infamously shot by actor John Wilkes Booth whilst attending the theatre in 1865.